I’m planning some big changes to my web presence this Autumn, not least of which is putting together a simple but proper author website with custom URL. This Blogger account has served me well, but as I plan on launching my first indie pub project later this year I think its limits have been reached. Stay tuned for further announcements!

So I was pleased this morning to find some advice from Mike Shatzkin on what exactly a proper author website should include in this day and age. His entire post (on author web presence and SEO, author branding, and marketing) is well worth the read, but here’s a checklist that I plan on testing my new site against:

* List of all your books, listed chronologically and by series
* A landing page for each book, including the cover, a description, reviews, excerpts, links to retail sites and other important metadata that would help readers discover the title and decide to buy
* Contact page so readers can easily send an email and get a response
* Sign-up for an email list for future updates and marketing initiatives
* Social media buttons, so readers can easily connect and share your content via social media
* Calendar with upcoming publication dates and scheduled public appearances
* Page with links to articles and reviews by the author, as well as references to the author on blogs and in the press

In addition to these things on an author website, Shatzkin recommends that authors all should have:

* Up-to-date Amazon author page
* Google Plus page (which is crucial for effective search engine optimization strategy)
* Twitter and Facebook

Shatzkin’s full article (and blog full of useful stuff generally) is here.

– S.